In
her 22-year career with the U.S. Forest Service, Gloria Flora became
nationally known both for her leadership in ecosystem management and
for her courageous principled stands. When she was in charge of the
Lewis and Clark National Forest in north-central Montana, she made
a landmark decision to prohibit natural gas wells along the spectacular
356,000-acre Rocky Mountain Front near the Bob Marshall Wilderness,
a place often described as an American Serengeti for its abundant
populations of elk, deer, grizzly bears, and fish-filled streams.
The oil and gas industry appealed all the way to the Supreme Court,
but she was ultimately victorious when, on the same day the story
of her struggle was being televised nationally on PBS' "NOW with
Bill Moyers," the Department of Interior announced a decision
reached "at the highest levels" not to approve drilling
along Montana's Rocky Mountain Front.

In 2000, she made national headlines again when she
resigned as Forest Supervisor for the largest national forest in the
lower 48 states - the Humboldt-Toiyabe in Nevada and eastern California
- to call attention to antigovernment zealots engaged in the harassment
and intimidation of Forest Service employees. "Gloria Flora deserves
to be held up as an American hero," said Chris Wood, senior policy
adviser to then Forest Service chief Mike Dombeck. For her courageous
stewardship of public lands, she received the Murie Award from the
Wilderness Society, the Environmental Quality Award for exemplary
resource decision-making from the Natural Resources Council of America,
and the Environmental Hero Award from Sunset Magazine. In 2004,
she was selected as one of the nation's top environmentalists by Vanity
Fair Magazine.

Today Flora is the Director of Sustainable Obtainable
Solutions, a nonprofit dedicated to the sustainability of public lands
and of the plants, animals and communities that depend on them. She
speaks on ecosystem stewardship, forest and public land sustainability,
people's relationships to landscapes - cultural, historical, social,
and psychological, and on the critical role of leadership that strives
to make a difference.

Video clips from a talk as well as from
several interviews are available here.
For more information about Gloria Flora and her speaking topics, experience,
fees and availability, please call 408-865-0888,
or send us an email message here.